Hours quickly passed for Leo as he waited patiently for his turn in the second round qualifiers.
While waiting, he watched other contestants strive for a decent score, gaining an understanding of the average needed for qualification.
The top score was currently an 8.9 overall, achieved by a player named 'Nico Paz,' with the qualifying mark for the top 10% appearing to be around 8.5-8.6.
Leo noted that many players excelled in one or two tests but failed to maintain consistently high scores across the board.
He felt confident in his ability to surpass them all and achieve the highest score, yet he was troubled by the attitude of 'Tor,' the berserker who was sitting a few rows ahead of him in the waiting stands.
"Trash-"
"Weak-"
"You call that a punch?"
"Only 4 wood blocks chopped out of 20? What are you, a seven-year-old child?"
Tor constantly belittled the performance of other contestants, exuding confidence in his ability to outperform everyone.
Initially, Leo thought Tor was merely a loudmouth seeking attention, but upon closer observation, he realized Tor did not even speak with the intention of being heard by others.
He talked to himself, never looking to see others' reactions to his words. His posture, tone, and excitement led Leo to understand that Tor wasn't just boasting; he genuinely believed himself to be superior to the others, which made Leo feel a small pinch of doubt.
'What if I'm not as good as I think I am? What if that tank like man is better than me?' Leo wondered, as while Ben had told him that he was the best, having not competed with colleague's his age, Leo did not know for sure if he were.
The crowd had gotten much milder compared to the start by the four hour mark, as unless someone did something fabulous, there were no big pops or cheers from amongst the crowd anymore.
"Next up- Bilony, Javed, Tor, Fenix and The Boss"
The commentator announced as the moment these five names were announced, the players in the crowd went wild.
"The Boss? Hey, did I hear it right? Did he really say The Boss?"
"The Boss as in the number one player? That guy? Who is The Boss? Where is that scammer?"
"WE LOVE YOU THE BOSS! SHOW THEM YOU'RE NUMBER ONE!"
"Oh look- the DarkSky guild member got up as well, seems like he's in this round as well"
The crowd went absolutely nuts, when the name 'TheBoss' was announced as even Tor paused for a second and looked at the four peers amongst him to determine which one of them was 'TheBoss'.
Thankfully, the moment Leo realized that this round would see his identity being revealed, he swapped his spider's mask for his Virex mask, while adjusting his level and stats to that of a true top player, as he covered all his bases.
Just as he expected, a shower of inspection spells befell him the moment he walked out into the testing arena and while almost all of them failed, with the identities of the other four players being confirmed, everyone pretty soon figured out which one of the five Leo really was.
"Heiii, you are the boss? The legendary number one player? Haha, why are you covering your face son?" Tor said as he tried to pick a fight with Leo, who completely ignored him.
"Hahaha, this should be fun, I will expose you for the fraud that you are-" Tor said, as he clenched his fists and flexed his bulging veins.
"I TOR OF THE DARK SKY GUILD, VOW TO OUTPERFORM THIS JOKER, LET'S SEE HIM TRY HIS BEST TO BEAT ME" Tor said loudly, as he issued an open challenge to Leo, riling up the crowd to even more levels of excitement than it already had.
"Oh my god! The Boss makes his first public appearance!"
"That's him! That's the boss-"
"DarkSky? Huh- you're nothing compared to the uprising! We are with you Sir Boss!"
Camera's shuttered, photos were taken, as the global chat was flooded with the images of the number one player 'TheBoss'.
For a long time, he had been a subject of countless debates and discussions. Now that he was finally out in the public, this was being treated as a historic event, which was only made more exciting by the challenge issued by the DarkSky guild player.
*Tor! Tor! Tor! Tor!*
Chants in support of Tor rang throughout the arena as he too played in on the hype and waved his hands upwards with passion as he rallied the crowd to his support.
For the first time since the second round started, the crowd became extremely electric as even the NPC in the stands who did not understand what the players were hyping on about, enjoyed the upturn in the atmosphere.
"Huh, that brute sure has a bigmouth on him-" Ben said, as he grit his teeth in anger, but watched on patiently.
"Bilony, standing long jump, Javed, standing high jump, Tor strength punch test, Felix, Weapons test, TheBoss, 100 meters dash" The ground official declared as the five contestants walked over to their respective testing spots.
All eyes were on Tor and Leo though, as although there were five of them in the testing arena, the other three had become invisible at this point.
##### The punch test.
"Please punch here, with your best shot-" the official said to Tor, who stood one arm length away from his target spot and steadied his breathing.
[ Shield Breaking Punch ]
Using a special punching martial arts that he had learned as a Berserker, Tor rotated his hips and channeled the mana from within his abdomen to deliver a punch with devastating strength.
*BAM*
The punch impact was so loud that the sound permeated throughout the arena as the crowd went absolutely wild at Tor's performance.
980!
The machine showed an absolutely wild score of 980 points! A full 400 points above the second highest punch at 580, as Tor absolutely obliterated the competition with this punch.
"GAAAAAAA" He yelled in elation as he flexed his muscles to Leo who was taking position on the starting line of the sprint track, trying to intimidate him with his presence.
"That's it! The Boss is done for, 980 holy shit! That's absolutely insane".
"Yo this DarkSky guild member looks like he's the real deal. That punch could smash through mountains man, what the fuck was that?"
"Yeah, the machine only takes readings up to 999, there is no way anyone is beating his score on this machine"
Everyone was beyond impressed by Tor's performance, making it seem like it was the biggest deal, while Leo only secretly scoffed at the fool.
[ System Notification - Your special skill 'Mimic' has copied the technique 'Shield Breaking Punch', do you wish to temporarily save this move? Yes/No ]
Clicking 'Yes', Leo thought 'Thankyou very much' as he shook his head and focused on his sprint ahead.
"On your marks, Set…..Go!"
*SWOOSH*
05:59:09.
From the second the official said go, Leo's incredible reaction speed kicked in as he used the power of his explosive muscles to the fullest to propel himself forward.
Having an absolutely insane agility stat, Leo's pace was beyond blistering fast as he completed the 100 meters dash in just under 6 seconds setting up a new record.
"WHAT? WHATTTT?" Screamed the NPC's in the crowd as they covered their heads and stared at the display screen with awe.
While the players did not understand what having a time under 6 seconds signified, however, the NPC did very well.
"THAT'S A NEW NATIONAL RECORD-" Someone shouted, as it was only at that moment that the players realized just how blisteringly fast Leo was.
"Woah! I've not seen anyone score less than 7.5 and most of them were using mana techniques to move-"
"Under 6 seconds? As expected of the number one player!"
"Boss! YESSS! WOHOO!"
Once again the crowd erupted in cheers as Leo did not disappoint with his score at all.
Living-up his reputation every bit as the number one player, he set a national record instead.
"Bahahaha- that's right, that's my boy-" Ben shouted in joy as he was extremely proud of Leo's performance, and although he had instructed Leo to not overdo it, he still felt good when Leo brought in results that no-one expected.
At this moment, as Leo threw a glance towards Tor, it seemed like the expression in his eyes had undergone a shift.
While before he believed Leo to be a complete fraud, he now saw him as a challenger, someone worthy to be defeated as Leo scoffed internally at this idea.
'Just wait till the end my friend, these eyes will turn to despair soon enough' Leo thought, as the referee gave the order to swap machines, with Leo confidently walking towards the punching test.
—---------
/// A/N - Like the book so far? Please drop a review if you do :) ///